Co-Mediation

Co-Mediation

“Co-Mediation” refers to one or more adjunct professionals joining the primary attorney mediator in his/her office for all or part of mediation meetings with clients. All information is shared amongst co-mediating professionals and the primary attorney.

A mediation may grind to a halt because participating clients are unable to communicate effectively or because their emotions are so escalated they simply can’t think straight. Rather than giving up on the mediation and sending them off to litigate in court, the attorney mediator may call in either one or more co-mediating collaborative coaches to facilitate communication and help respective clients to regulate their emotions sufficiently to be able to proceed effectively. Sometimes a single Collaborative Coach serves as a neutral co-mediator, shared by all clients. Some clients, however, are sufficiently polarized that they may each need their own Coach to help them practice and prepare for how to best approach the difficult but necessary conversations that often occur during mediations.

Similarly, clients may be stuck on the details of a financial issue, that only a financial specialist can fully address. One of CCP's collaboratively-trained financial specialists may be invited in as a neutral co-mediator to help clarify the financial challenges at hand.

Occasionally clients engaged in litigation, decide to mediate their case and select one of CCP's attorneys as a neutral mediator to keep the case out of court. CCP's primary mediating attorney may have clients as well as their previous litigating attorneys in the same room, but now serving as Consulting Attorneys. This is most likely to be effective if the co-mediating/consulting attorneys are mediation-friendly. Professionals trained and experienced in Collaborative Practice are often more likely to be "mediation-friendly," and avoid the adversarial positioning that can cause a mediation to fail. The inclusion of previous litigating attorneys as Consulting Attorneys is yet another form of Co-Mediation.